On August 6, I’ll be at the Lehigh Valley Comic Con, a very pleasant small show. I haven’t been out to it for several years but this one is the 15th Anniversary and should be nice. It’s at the firehouse at 4550 Old Packhouse Rd in Schnecksville, PA. If you need a break from the …

Won’t be long before we head south to Morristown for the Garden State Comic Fest. It was a fine show last year and should be fun this time. It’s odd that when I clicked on my bio at the show’s site it came up with Greg Hildebrant’s name. One of the highpoint last year was …

This weekend on August 2nd, I’ll be at ROB-CON in Bristol TN at the Viking Hall. If you mosey by that neck of the woods, please drop by, say hello. Remember, like all proper shows, this one also has a member of the Walking Dead.

Joe will be appearing at the Baltimore Comic-Con, September 5 -7. At the show, they’ll be distributing a Yearbook with art by the guests. Those artists with creator-owned characters were asked to draw them interacting with Matt Wagner’s character Grendel. This is Joe’s contribution, with colors by Matt Webb, pitting The Blonde against Hunter Rose among the rooftops of Port Nocturne.

When the comic strip Annie was retired from the comics page in 2010, the story-line left readers with a cliffhanger with Annie in clutches of a war criminal known as “The Butcher of the Balkans.” The assassin promised he wouldn’t kill Annie, but she’d spend the rest of her days with him on his “deadly travels.”

Fast-forward nearly four years and Dick Tracy cartoonists Mike Curtis and Joe Staton are picking up the storyline. On June 1st the comic strips Annie and Dick Tracy are colliding as “Daddy” Warbucks hires Dick Tracy to pick up the trail and find his daughter.

According to Curtis, it turns out that after some time spent fruitlessly searching the world for his beloved adopted daughter, Warbucks has decided to enlist the help of the only man who can rescue Annie: Dick Tracy.

“As a lifelong admirer of Annie, I felt the need to unravel her disappearance,” says Curtis, who’s helmed Dick Tracy with Staton since March 2011. Curtis’ previous writing credits include Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost for Harvey Comics.

“Joe and I have planned Annie’s rescue for some time, and we’ll deliver action-packed, over-the-top thrills and chills as the two features combine their casts for what we hope will be the most historic tale in comic strip history,” Curtis says.

Here is the drawing I did for the charity auction at the New York Comic Con (October 10-13), honoring Moon Maid’s appearance in DICK TRACY. Crack Tracy colorist Shane Fisher is working on a color version and I’ll have posters of that one for sale at my table, B-3.

At this year’s Baltimore Comic Con, artist Joe Staton and Tracy consultant Jim Dougherty, on behalf of the entire creative team of Dick Tracy, were presented with the 2013 Harvey Award for “Best Syndicated Strip!”

The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry’s oldest and most respected awards. The Harveys recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories, ranging from Best Artist to the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame. They are the only industry awards both nominated by and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

The Calling Dick Tracy e-book collection of Mike Curtis’s and my run on the Dick Tracy strip is available for purchase now. It contains our first four Tracy continuities from 2011 and will be a good way to catch up.

This is the official website of Eisner Award-winning cartoonist, comic book artist and children's illustrator, Joe Staton. Joe is best-known for his decades of work on DC Comics characters like Batman, Green Lantern, The Huntress, Plastic Man and the Justice Society of America, his co-creation (with Nicola Cuti), E-Man, and many popular "all-ages" comics like Jughead and Scooby-Doo. He is currently the artist on Tribune Media Services' long-running newspaper strip, Dick Tracy. (Click on the image above to read today's strip!)